TODAY: Navalny found guilty; receives 5-year prison sentence; could be barred from Moscow mayoral election. Debate launched over Pussy Riot video; jet deal with India; economic downturn looms; Russia’s different forms of leadership.

A court in Kirov has found opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny guilty of embezzling 16 million rubles from Kirov regional state-run unitary enterprise Kirovles and sentenced him to five years in jail.  The indefatigable Putin critic, who has registered as a candidate for the Moscow mayoral election, will have ten days to file an appeal.  If the appeal is revoked before September 8, he will be barred from running in the election.  Reports like this indicate that most people will not have been surprised by the outcome, which has been described as an act of political persecution from the outset, a supposition supported by the fact that 33 of the 35 witnesses called by the prosecution gave testimony that confirmed Navalny’s version of events.  Analyst Lilia Shvetsova has called Navalny ‘a new Russian Mandela‘ and comparisons with the Khodorkovsky case abound.  ‘But if the Khodorkovsky trial a decade ago underscored how Putin and his team were confident and rising, the Navalny case — and the one against the Bolotnaya protesters — reeks of desperation‘.  Ria-Novosti interviews Navalny’s co-defendant, Pyotr Ofitserov, the businessman who is accused of participating in the fraud scheme Navalny allegedly created and who has refused to testify against him.